


Ceaseless Stream of Opiates

by Addemup



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29502141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Addemup/pseuds/Addemup
Summary: To Nathan Sharps, life is death. To the noosphere, Nate is potential...





	Ceaseless Stream of Opiates

Nathan stared expressionless at his desktop monitor, just as he had done for many days prior. It wasn't like he could do much else; the school board had made it clear to him, and his drunken mother sprawled unconscious on the living room couch didn't help the situation.  
  
He knew little of what, if anything, he was doing on his computer. Like a mindless zombie, he browsed the vast infinitude of webpages which made up the Internet, searching for something interesting to catch his eye. But no matter how many cat videos on YouTube he watched, no matter how many Wikipedia pages on historical events he read, no matter how long or how deep he dived into the World Wide Web, nothing he found summoned even the smallest inkling of emotion within his mind.  
  
Somewhere along the line, the world itself began to blur around him. The monitor, already the subject of Nate's undivided attention, appeared to wrap around his head before dissipating into a sea of pictures, sounds, and text. The pictures decayed into pixels, the sounds dissolved into samples, and the text became symbols. Soon, the only thing he saw were unending sequences of ones and zeros, and even that disintegrated into nothing.  
  
For a moment or an eternity, Nate was numb. Deprived of all sensation and incapable of independent thought, he could do nothing as his mind left his brain and began drifting into an abstract realm both adjacent and inside of the Earth.  
  
It was as if the secrets of reality itself were unveiled before his own eyes. The cumulative thoughts of two hundred billion individuals washed over his mind, the vast majority slipping away before he could catch even the slightest glimpse of them. A miniscule fraction of those thoughts, strong and consistent in their composition, seeped through the pores permeating a psychic barrier and entered the outer layers of his subconscious.  
  
From there, the myriad diverse ideas birthed from the endless font of creativity that is mankind made their way inwards. As they journeyed ever closer into Nate's inner psyche, some of these thoughts began to smolder. They were too divergent, too incompatible with the substance they swam through, and they had no choice but to erupt into flames.  
  
[A fantastical story of four chipper Englishmen coming together to save a surreal realm from fun-hating monsters](https://d2e111jq13me73.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/styles/share_link_image_large/public/screenshots/csm-movie/yellow-submarine-1.jpg?itok=ARfkvIwr) reduced to rubble, too optimistic and ancient for a cynical teenager like Nate. [A harrowing tale of a cyborg's wish to be terminated resulting in the death of all reality](https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3406870115_10.jpg) burned to ash, too sickening and powerful. [A freakish fusion of two completely different Japanese personalities, one mischievous and the other vengeful](https://i.pximg.net/img-original/img/2018/04/06/00/47/15/68094842_p0.png) diminished to nothing, too bizarre and abstract.  
  
Out of the million million creations which took the plunge into his subconscious, in the end it was but one which completed its perilous journey. Although this singular victor belonged to several, it was by no means a complete narrative; rather, it comprised the totality of traits which, when brought together in the right proportions, created [a character known and understood by many](https://i.pximg.net/img-master/img/2013/06/20/21/23/11/36518946_p0_master1200.jpg). The similarities between this fictional person and Nate, the harmonic resonance they shared, was too great to be ignored.  
  
The concept took itself and poked a tiny hole in Nate's soul. Prying the hole open into a large gap, it burrowed itself into the crevice it created. The concept would remain there forevermore, linked to his soul for as long as it continued to shine.

**Author's Note:**

> Q: What is this?  
> A: I don't know. Probably the insane ramblings of a madman, if nothing else.
> 
> Q: This is confusing. Could you explain it to me?  
> A: No. Some things are better learned than taught.
> 
> Q: What are all the linked images about?  
> A: You're on the internet. Look them up yourself.
> 
> Q: Do you plan on continuing this?  
> A: I don't know. I'm not motivated to do much at the moment, but I'm confident it'll change soon.


End file.
